TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
INTRODUCTION TO TROPICAL AGRICULTURE AND
OUTLOOK FOR TROPICAL CROPS IN A GLOBALIZED
ECONOMY
F. J. Morales
Head Virology Research Unit, International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Colombia.
Key words: Tropical agriculture, terms of trade, globalization, free trade agreements,
agricultural commodities, agricultural subsidies, biofuels.
Contents
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1. Introduction
2. The origin of tropical crops
3. Dissemination of tropical crops outside their centers of origin
4. Tropical agriculture in colonial times
5. Independence and tropical agriculture
6. Tropical food crops
7. Outlook on tropical agriculture
8. Tropical food crops in a globalized economy
9. Historical background
10. Globalization
11. Free trade
12. The starting point
13. The future of tropical crops
14. Market inequalities
15. Crop diversification
16. Agricultural research and development
17. Free trade and politics
Glossary
Bibliography
Biographical Sketch
Summary
The Tropics are the center of origin and domestication of many of the most important
food crops of the world, including maize, potato, sweet potato, cassava, cocoa,
sorghum, millet, tomato, peppers, many cucurbits, peanut, rubber, tobacco, cotton,
common bean, oil palm, coconut, sugarcane, coffee, banana, pineapple, mango, and
papaya. However, colonial rule of developing nations by European powers drastically
reduced the number of crops to a few export commodities (e.g. sugarcane, tobacco and
cotton). Staples, such as maize, common bean, cassava, potato, sweet potato, sorghum,
and rice, remained as traditional food crops in tropical countries, without much demand
or value in international markets. Some high-value crops, such as coffee, tea, or cocoa,
have been exploited in the tropics, but trans-national companies in developed countries
control the market, industrialization, and commerce of these commodities. The
globalization of the economy is the consequence of rapid progress in communication
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
and transportation technologies that facilitate global commerce. However, the
international trade of agricultural commodities is still affected by different barriers, such
as tariffs, export/import quotas, and subsidies. Free Trade Agreements seek to eliminate
these protectionist measures, but it has proven a difficult objective to achieve. For
developing countries to be able to compete with traditional export crops under free trade
conditions, they must invest in agricultural research and development, but the gap
between the technological development of tropical nations and industrialized temperate
countries is still abysmal. The potential use of many under-exploited tropical crops as
sources of biofuel is an interesting prospect. Whether small-scale farmers in developing
countries will be able to improve their livelihoods because of the creation of new market
opportunities for their traditional crops or not, remains to be seen.
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1. Introduction
The Tropics is the geographic region of the Earth centered on the Equator and limited in
latitude by the Tropics of Cancer (23.5˚ N) and Capricorn (23.5˚ S). This region
includes all the areas of the Earth where the sun reaches an altitude of 90˚ and moves
between the two tropics during the average length of the year. Thus, the Tropics does
not experience marked changes in temperature (seasons) due to the position of the sun
and, due to the constant daily radiation, water evaporation produces abundant rainfall in
this ‘torrid’ region during the ‘wet season’. Depending on the position of the sun during
the year and the region, a ‘dry season’ also occurs at different times of the year, lasting
from a month to over half a year. These dry and wet seasons may present a unimodal or
bimodal distribution during the year. However, tropical ecosystems vary considerably
from deserts to rainforests, and temperature can be drastically changed by the concept of
‘vertical geography’, ranging from hot lowlands to snow-capped mountains within a
few hundred kilometers.
Based on the above environmental characteristics of the tropical zone, we can expect a
large number of different eco-systems and a rich biodiversity of plant and animal life in
this region. Thus, we have the humid tropics (rainforests), the arid tropics (deserts and
dry areas), and the wet-and-dry tropics (monsoon and other zones receiving abundant
rainfall during the wet season). The extreme and highly variable environmental
conditions found in the Tropics, particularly the high temperature, high humidity
conditions, cause accelerated degradation of tropical soils, making the highly acidic (pH
<5), toxic (high aluminum content), and deficient in critical nutrients, such as
phosphorus. In the humid tropics, the relative importance of acid soils is greatest in
Latin America (81%), but also significant in Africa (56%) and Asia (38%). The rapid
degradation of tropical soils is more noticeable in rainforests and mountain slopes that
lose their protective vegetation due to human activity. In some wet-and-dry tropical
regions, the dry season may last six months on average, impeding the cultivation of
plants, unless irrigation is available. However, dry regions in the tropics are usually
affected by the presence of soluble salts due to the low rainfall, and irrigation tends to
aggravate the salinity problem. On the contrary, the wet season may be so intense that
flooding and crop damage occurs in certain tropical regions.
Besides the above-mentioned abiotic stresses, tropical crops are constantly exposed to a
large number of pathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc.) and other pests, mainly insects,
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
whose populations in the tropics are not reduced by harsh winter conditions as in
temperate regions. Moreover, the continuous availability of plant hosts during the year,
maintains the populations of a myriad of pests at a damaging level in tropical regions.
2. The Origin of Tropical Crops
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The Tropics are either the center of origin or domestication of many of the most
important food crops currently cultivated in the world: maize, rice, potato, sweet potato,
cassava, cocoa, sorghum, millet, tomato, peppers, many cucurbits, peanut, rubber,
tobacco, cotton, common beans, oil palm, coconut, sugarcane, coffee, and many fruit
crops, such as banana, pineapple, mango, and papaya. However, a myriad of other food
crops were also domesticated and consumed by the early civilizations that developed in
the Tropics. The domestication of these valuable crops took place long before the
European conquest of practically all of the nations located in the tropical zone,
particularly in Latin America, Africa and Asia. The driving force behind European
supremacy was primarily the need to survive in a challenging environment, which
demanded constant technological innovation. The early European cultures adopted
crops, such as wheat and barley, domesticated around the Middle East some 10,000
years B.P., and eventually developed nations that conquered the ancient civilizations of
the world. The driving force behind European expansionism was the relatively limited
natural resources of Europe and the discovery of valuable plant products in the tropics.
In fact, the discovery of the Americas was motivated by the search of a safe maritime
route to acquire the precious spices produced in Asia. The exploitation of the abundant
mineral resources of the New World and the trade of human beings in Africa were
accidental activities of the European traders in pursue of valuable agricultural products.
In a world still dominated by nations outside the tropical zone, where colonial
imperialism has been replaced by economic imperialism, the analysis of ‘tropical
agriculture’ cannot be removed from its historical development. From the purely
agricultural point of view, we usually describe tropical agriculture in terms of those
crops that were either adopted or introduced by European conquerors in the tropical
nations that fell under their dominion. But the plant genetic resources and ancestral
agriculture of the tropical zone are far richer in terms of number of cultivated species
and potential markets for new tropical crops.
The birth of ‘tropical agriculture’ some 8,000 years ago meant the birth of the main
civilizations that developed in the Tropics. Before modern human beings domesticated
plants, they were simply hunters and gatherers of the natural biodiversity. When these
wandering groups of people domesticated plants, they could finally settle down and
develop complex societies and city-states based on the production of surplus
agricultural products. In Latin America, maize (Zea mays) was the most important and
widely adopted crop in pre-Columbian times. Maize was grown by most of the
aboriginal societies of the Americas when the Spanish arrived in this region back in the
late 15th century. The rapid dissemination of maize from its center of origin, the central
highlands of Mexico, throughout Latin America, can be explained by the possibility of
transporting viable seed for long distances and relatively long periods of time. This was
also the case of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), although this species had
different centers of origin and domestication ranging north to south from Mexico to
Chile. Lima bean (P. lunatus) was also an important grain legume in prehispanic times,
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
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having been frequently represented in many ceramics produced by the ancient cultures
of Peru. Cucurbits, such as squash (Cucurbita pepo), pipian (Cucurbita argyrosperma),
and ayote (Cucurbita moschata), were also highly popular food crops among the preHispanic societies of the American tropics. Peanut (Arachis hypogaea), hot and sweet
peppers (Capsicum spp.), and tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum/Solanum lycopersicum)
were domesticated in different regions of tropical Latin America. A major crop of the
American lowlands was cassava (Manihot esculenta), a root crop vegetatively
propagated from stem cuttings that also disseminated widely in Latin America from its
center of origin in northern Brazil. Another important neo-tropical root crop
domesticated in the Americas was sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), with two possible
centers of origin or domestication in Mesoamerica and South America. In the highlands,
and precisely in the vicinity of Lake Titicaca, potatoes (Solanum spp.) were born and
domesticated by the pre-Columbian cultures that later gave rise to the Inca civilization
and many other Andean societies found by the Spanish conquerors in South America.
Among the industrial crops that originated in the neo-tropics, cotton (Gossypium
hirsutum and G. barbadense), tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), rubber (Hevea spp.), cocoa
(Theobroma cacao), were widely used following their domestication in pre-Hispanic
Latin America. Important neo-tropical fruit crops include: passion fruit (Passiflora
edulis), guava (Psidium guajava), papaya (Carica papaya), sweet pepino (Solanum
muricatum), and pineapple (Ananas comosus).
In tropical Africa, specifically in the southern border of the Saharan region, three
important grain crops, African rice (Oryza glaberrima) sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and
pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), were domesticated some 3,000 years ago. Cowpea
(Vigna unguiculata) is native of Africa, where about eight million hectares are currently
cultivated. This is a drought-tolerant crop adapted to poor soils of the Tropics. Rice
(Oryza sativa), the food crop that provides approximately 20% of the calories consumed
by over 1.7 billion people in the world, was probably brought into cultivation along the
temperate region of the Yangtze River in southern China, over 8,000 years ago.
However, its domestication and expansion may have taken place across a broad region
that stretched from India to Southeast Asia, in the Tropics. Soybean (Glycine max) was
domesticated in China and Southeast Asia about 4,000 years ago, where it is considered
an important source of protein. Bananas (Musa spp.) originated in South East Asia,
probably in Malaysia, and are currently staple food crops for millions of people in
developing tropical nations.
3. Dissemination of Tropical Crops outside Their Centers of Origin
The dissemination of tropical crops beyond their centers of origin is not only associated
with population growth, but with the drastic environmental changes that took place in
the tropical ecosystems where these crops originated. For instance, the southern part of
the actual Saharan region that gave rise to the African cereals was a humid grassland
and not a desert 7,000 years ago; and the Amazon basin was not as densely forested at
that time. The early human societies developed in areas along the main rivers of the
world or water reservoirs, such as Lake Titicaca in the South American highlands; and
knew very well that agriculture was highly dependent on the availability of water. Rice,
for instance, moved from the subtropical environments where it originated in China, to
the humid regions of Southeast Asia, where the crop could thrive due to the abundant
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
rainfall that characterizes this torrid region. Some tropical crops may have spread with
the peopling of the world. The Americas was apparently inhabited by Asian people that
crossed the Bering Strait from Siberia into Alaska, until they reached the southern most
region of South America over 10,000 years ago. However, the domestication of plants
took longer, and, thus, it is not surprising to observe that some of the main crops in the
Americas, moved from their centers of origin as much south as northwards, after the
population of the entire region in Palaeolithic and Neolithic times. For instance, maize
disseminated southwards from its center of origin in central Mexico, some 6,000 years
ago, whereas tomato, potato, chili, peanut, cocoa, disseminated northwards from their
centers of origin in South America.
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When the European powers conquered the Tropics of Latin America, Asia, and Africa,
they initiated the intercontinental exchange of plant genetic resources that was to define
the agricultural systems of both the developed and developing nations of today. Maize is
probably the most valuable gift of the Americas to the entire world, whereas rice is
consumed mainly in Asia (90% of the total world production). Another major
contribution of the Americas to the world’s food supply, was potato, although its
adaptation is relatively more limited than that of maize. In fact, the first potato cultigens
(subsp. andigena) introduced in Europe from Peru, did not adapt well to the long-day,
temperate conditions of Europe. Cassava was eventually introduced into Africa from the
Americas, where it became a major staple in the diet of millions of resource-poor people
in sub-Saharan Africa. Cassava was also introduced in India and Southeast Asia, where
it is also extensively produced for local consumption and as a cash crop. Sweet potato,
another root crop of the Americas, was introduced into Asia, Africa and the Pacific
regions, where it is now an important staple. Asia provided the world with banana and
plantains, particularly Africa, the major producer of these crops for domestic
consumption. Latin America is the world major producer of bananas for export.
Sorghum is the fifth major cereal crop in the world after wheat, rice, maize, and barley,
with a global area of about 47 million hectares. Sorghum is an important staple in
Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Sorghum was introduced in the Americas through the
slave trade, where it is used mainly as animal feed. Millet is still largely consumed in its
region of origin, Africa, but Asia produces the majority of the world’s millets. Cowpea
is a drought-tolerant crop that also fixes nitrogen in poor soils. Cowpea is consumed in
Africa and Asia, and to a lesser extent in Latin America, particularly in north-eastern
Brazil, a region frequently affected by drought. Brazil is the world’s largest producer of
common bean, and Latin America grows over half of the global production of this food
legume. Common beans are also primary staples in East Africa, and China has shown
the capacity to plant large areas of common bean for export. Peanut or groundnut is
mainly produced in China, India and sub-Saharan African countries despite its South
American origin.
Regarding fruit crops, papaya is widely cultivated in Asia and Africa, where it was
introduced from the Americas. Cocoa, another American crop, is currently grown
mainly in West Africa (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon) with 67% of the
world’s production; followed by Indonesia (13%), Brazil (5%), and Ecuador (4%); the
latter country being the most likely center of origin. The origin of coconut (Cocos
nucifera) is not clearly defined, and this species is now widely distributed in the
Tropics, providing a variety of important food products, including oil. Pineapple is an
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
American fruit crop, but South East Asia currently dominates world production,
followed by Brazil. Hawaiian pineapples (‘Smooth Cayenne’) are famous as canned
fruits.
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With regard to industrial tropical crops, cotton seems to be native to both the Old and
New Worlds. Gossypium hirsutum has been the main species grown in Central and
North America, whereas G. barbadense was the species grown in pre-Columbian South
America and currently in Egypt, where some of the finest cotton is produced. Rubber
(Hevea brasiliensis) was taken in the 19th century, from its center of origin in Latin
America to Asia, where it is now abundantly produced. However, over half of the
rubber produced nowadays in the world, is synthetic. Coffee (Coffea arabica) is
indigenous to Ethiopia, and it was eventually disseminated in the 15th century by
Muslims. Coffee was introduced in Latin America in the 18th century, where it rapidly
adapted, becoming the main agricultural export product of this regions until the mid 20th
century.
4. Tropical Agriculture in Colonial Times
The Arabs had the monopoly of the spice trade since biblical times. They acquired
spices such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves and ginger in Asian countries (e.g. India, China
and Indonesia), at a time when most food products were bland and, consequently, spices
were in high demand. Egypt became the main spice market for Europe, particularly for
Venice and Genoa. Following Marco Polo’s accounts of his trips to the land of spices in
the late 13th century, European merchants set sail for the ports described, and, soon, the
major western powers (e.g. Portugal, Holland, England) took control of the spiceproducing nations of Asia. Spain dropped out of the spice trade and sold its rights to the
Spice Islands to Portugal. Spain then focused its attention on the mineral riches (gold
and silver) of the newly discovered American continent. But, land was also a precious
commodity, and large areas were seized from native tribes and nations, to be assigned,
leased or sold to European settlers, who used slaves and primitive technologies to
exploit these extensive landholdings. In Latin America, the ‘encomienda’ system
allowed Spanish settlers to exercise total control over the aboriginal communities
reducing them into slavery. The productivity of these extensive ‘haciendas’ was usually
low per unit area, and was characterized by a ‘subsistence’ agriculture practiced by the
enslaved native population. This inefficient agricultural system, referred to as
‘latifundismo’ in Latin America, was still common in the middle of the 20th century.
The more intensive ‘plantation’ agriculture, also involved rather primitive agricultural
practices, even though the use of draft animals to till the land was considered a major
improvement in Latin America, where pre-Hispanic societies did not have draft animals.
Furthermore, agriculture was heavily taxed in colonial Latin America, to discourage the
development of an agricultural industry that could eventually compete with agricultural
products imported from Spain. The main plantation crops at this time were: tobacco,
sugarcane, cotton, cocoa, and natural dyes (e.g. indigo blue., and ‘Pau Brasil’).
As in the case of Latin America, the colonial system in Africa gave land to settlers, who
could make use of the cheap labor provided by the dispossessed local communities.
European policy favored white settlers, particularly in countries such as Kenya, South
Africa and Zimbabwe. In the Belgian Congo, the land was owned by the state, and
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
African laborers who did not meet their harvest quotas, could be severely punished and
even executed. The main plantation crops in Africa were: coffee, cotton, tea, tobacco,
rubber, and sisal. In 1498, the Portuguese reached India, thus beginning European
infiltration of Asia. Towards the end of the 18th century, India was under British control.
The British extended their dominion to Malaysia. In 1618, the Dutch took over
Indonesia, and the French over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos (French Indo-China). The
Philippines were already a Spanish colony since 1565. The colonies became a cheap
source of raw materials for the European continent, with most of the land being devoted
to export crops: cotton, spices, tea, sugar, coffee, indigo, coconut, pineapple, and
tobacco. One of the main agricultural export products of colonial Asia, under European
control, was opium (poppy).
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5. Independence and Tropical Agriculture
Most of the nations located in the Tropics were colonies of a European or North
American power, and consequently, their agriculture was based on the inefficient use of
large landholdings, protectionism, abundant capital from local natural resources (e.g.
mining), and slave labor. Independent nations in the Tropics had to face a different
reality of depleted natural resources, the end of slavery, competition from other
independent nations, and the loss of the main market. Moreover, one of the most
negative production factors that characterized colonial agriculture, the concentration of
land in the hands of few privileged people, has continued to date in most developing
nations. Independence also brought extreme social and political unrest to tropical
nations that soon found themselves consuming their energy and scarce economic
resources in civil wars and endless struggles for power among local chieftains and
politicians. Eventually, these impoverished nations had to replace the Spanish rule by
the economic neo-colonialism created by their dependence from other European powers
that were finally able to access these potentially rich markets and cheap sources of
natural resources. The arrival of European merchants and emergence of the United
States as another world power, created new markets for Latin American agricultural
products, but, as in other tropical continents, the marketing and wealth generated by
these agricultural exports ended up in the hands of foreign companies. The end of the
19th century witnesses the entrance of Latin America to the world market as a provider
of raw materials, mainly agricultural products, such as sugar, cocoa and cotton.
Undoubtedly, the most important agricultural commodity of the late 19th and most of the
20th century in Latin America, was coffee. This crop adapted well to this region,
particularly to marginal mountain slopes occupied by small-scale farmers that found in
this crop a sustainable source of income with relatively low production costs. Coffee
also became a regular source of employment in the rural sector of many Latin American
countries, and soon surpassed all other agricultural exports in terms of its contribution to
the economy of the region, becoming the dominant export crop of many countries,
including Brazil. Coffee and other crops, such as cocoa, oil palm, rubber, peanut, and
cotton, remain important export commodities of Africa, even after this continent
regained its independence in the mid 20th century. The 19th century was a period of
foreign domination and exploitation of the natural resources of tropical Asian nations.
For instance, the ‘cultivation system’ (taxes, custom duties, monopolies) imposed by
Holland in its south-eastern Asian colonies, made up to a third of Holland’s national
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TROPICAL BIOLOGY AND CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT – Vol. III - Introduction To Tropical Agriculture And Outlook
For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
budget at that time. The main commodities produced were sugar, coffee, tea, and indigo.
In India, famine has been a constant threat and ugly reality Since independence (the mid
1900s) induced by the economic exploitation of rural communities by the colonial
powers, uneven distribution of land, exclusion of the poor rural sector, and natural
disasters. Export crops, such as sugarcane, jute, cotton, and tea, still under-employ
millions of poor people. In South East Asia, export crops, such as pineapple, tobacco,
rubber, timber and coconut, exploited by Europeans up to the mid 20th century, remain
important agricultural commodities in the region.
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For Tropical Crops In A Globalized Economy - F. J. Morales
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Biographical Sketch
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Francisco J. Morales received the B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Engineering from the National University
of Colombia, Bogota; M.Sc degree in Plant Pathology from Cornell University, Ithaca; and Ph.D. in Plant
Pathology from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1978. He joined the International Center for
Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in that year as a post-doctoral Fellow in the Bean Program, and became a
Senior Scientist in the same program the following year. In 1988, he created the Virology Research Unit
of CIAT and became its Head until the present time. He also worked as a Senior Germplasm Health
Specialist for the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI/Biodiversity) from 1999 until
2002. In 2002, he became the Coordinator of the Global Tropical Whitefly IPM Project (TWFP). Dr.
Morales also has a temporary office at the International Potato Center (CIP) in Lima, Peru, where he
coordinates the South American Andean sub-project of the TWFP. His interests include International
Agricultural Development, and the contribution of the pre-Columbian societies of the Americas in the
domestication and dissemination of tropical crops. Dr. Morales has received various international awards
for his contribution to crop improvement and plant virology in the Tropics, and is the authors of over a
hundred publications in refereed journals and books.
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